As the birthplace of the modern traffic stoplight, Michigan has some clout when it comes to traffic safety. The quality of our roads is nothing worth bragging about most of the time, but we’ll always have the three-color stoplight to hang over everyone’s heads (no pun intended).
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While red is universally recognized as a signal to “stop”, not all stop signs are the same. The octagonal stop sign is well understood, but it is not the default around the world. Japan uses an upside-down triangle, Papua New Guinea uses a unique shape, and Nepal uses a red octagon with no text or symbols, just a red shape.
However, as it turns out, Michigan has one unique stop sign that isn’t used anywhere else in the country, but for us who live here, it seems completely normal.
Michigan’s “Stop Sign Boxes”
If you’ve ever arrived at an intersection, most likely a four-way stop, you’ve probably noticed one of these stop signs:
However, what you probably didn’t realize is that these stop signs are exclusive to Michigan. While I could not find anything online explicitly stating why Michigan is the only state to do this, the general belief is that these box span stop signs were installed because a traffic light used to be at the intersection, but it was removed. Since the power line was still in place, the State just hung these in its place of the light…